Terracotta larnax (chest-shaped coffin)

Unknown

mid-13th century BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

The larnax was the standard type of coffin in Crete from the early fourteenth century to the twelfth century B.C. The structure with recessed panels on each side suggests a wooden prototype, and recent scholarship has identified Egyptian chests as the probable models. The decoration on each side consists of geometric and vegetal ornaments well represented on contemporary pottery. The larnax stands at the beginning of an impressive series of large-scale funerary monuments in the Greek and Roman collection.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-13th century BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Minoan

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Anonymous Gift, in memory of Nicolas and Mireille Koutoulakis, 1996